In its life together in Christ and in the moving of the Holy Spirit in its midst, the church is shaped by particular practices of mission.
Christian practices of mission must be rooted in the life shared in the risen Christ. Through its pursuit of spiritual practices, the church becomes a missional sign of the reign of Christ and is drawn into the triune life of God.
The church invites the wider community into its practices that they might discover Christ in community and through the ministry of the Spirit.
The core practices of the church are proclaiming the Good News of Christ (by which it witnesses to the Living Lord Jesus Christ), baptism (by which we are engrafted into Christ and receive our missional vocation) and the Lord’s Supper (by which we live in the hospitality of Christ and are nourished for our missional vocation).
The church lives in the practice of humble repentance, continually turning and returning to follow Christ more fully.
The church lives in the practice of ongoing praise and worship of God both as individuals working in the world and as a community when we gather.
The church lives in a continual practice of intercession for the world around us and particularly in seeking justice for those who suffer and are most vulnerable in our community and around the earth.
The practice of service and hospitality is expressed as we prayerfully open and share ourselves, our lives and our apartments/homes and our resources with each other, seeking to embody the hospitality of God in Christ. As individuals, families and congregations we must develop practices of hospitality and let our spaces be hospitable spaces. In these ways we live in love.
Through the practice of dying with hope in Christ, Christians witness to the reign of God.
Through the practice of supporting and accompanying those who are suffering and dying, the church witnesses to the love of Christ.
Through the practice of prophetic dialogue, the church brings hope for a renewed, reconciled and just world by working for justice in our local and global institutions.
Through the practice of protecting and caring for creation and by refusing an exploitative approach to it through consumerism, we honour God.
By respecting human limitations and needs for sustenance and rest, we practice Sabbath keeping.
Under the inspiration and guidance of the Spirit, we may also discover many additional practices through which we, together, embody the resurrection life of Christ.
Leadership in the missional context means:
– teaching and proclaiming the gospel of God’s love in Christ as this is set forth in scripture and as it has been lived and understood over time,
– inviting women, men, children and families into spiritual practices that draw them deeply into the triune life of God: prayer, Sabbath keeping, hospitality, fasting and reconciliation,
– prayerful discernment of ways the Holy Spirit is at work within the congregation and the wider community, manifesting the reign of Christ,
– exercising self-care as a Sabbath discipline and receiving care from others,
– exploring and identifying ways that a congregation’s ethos or structure or self-understanding prevents it from faithfulness to its missional identity,
– helping the church to discern its embrace of cultural elements that represent a refusal of Christ’s reign,
– inviting the people of God into ways of living, working, advocating and serving that manifest the reign of Christ in the world,
– helping God’s people to interpret the culture around them and to discern its beauty and truthfulness or acknowledge its unfaithfulness,
– exhibiting imagination and courage (risk-taking) as the church continues to move us from the nominal faith expressions of Christendom to the engaged embodied generosity and hospitality and integrity,
– demonstrating the possibilities of imaginative risk taking – trusting that Christ is Lord of the church – and that the Spirit is alive bringing the reign of Christ to the world in every new ways and in every context.
– Leadership is loving service of God’s reign through relationships of integrity within the church and not about managing people or processes or structures or conflict – according to the ‘managerial’ controlling spirit of modern culture.
This is the final section of a statement approved by the 2019 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The full statement can be found here.